


loved you first

by thekardemomme



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Awkward Flirting, Blind Date, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-09-04
Packaged: 2019-07-06 16:03:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15889371
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thekardemomme/pseuds/thekardemomme
Summary: It’s a deal he and Sam made a long time ago, one that Steve had never really expected to have to go through with. But now, he’s been scrambling for three days to find a blind date for Sam—and he’s come up completely empty-handed.





	loved you first

It’s a deal he and Sam made a long time ago, one that Steve had never really expected to have to go through with. But now, he’s been scrambling for three days to find a blind date for Sam—and he’s come up completely empty-handed.

Really, it’s not his fault. He made this deal in June, when everyone was single. But now it’s getting closer to Christmas, and all of the friends that Steve had thought about setting Sam up with are no longer available. Even Jessa, the one girl who’d even had a crush on Sam for _years,_ found a boyfriend. Now Steve has approximately an hour and a half to find someone willing to go on a date with Sam Wilson on short notice.

“Fuck,” Steve swears, kicking the bottom of his desk. “Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

“Rough day?” A voice asks, and Steve looks up to see his coworker, Bucky, standing in the doorway to Steve’s office. Steve blushes, looking at where he’d kicked his desk out of place.

“You could say that,” Steve admits. “Anyway, uh, what’s up?”

Bucky steps in, watching as Steve realigns his desk. There’s an amused smirk on his face that would make Steve’s insides melt if he wasn’t already blushing head to toe. “I wanted to make sure you finished the reports, but I’m gonna take a wild guess and say no.” He steps in further, leaning against Steve’s desk. Steve looks up at him, trying to focus on what he’s saying and not how good he looks in a tailored suit. “What happened that you’re so frustrated about?”

“Oh, that,” Steve mumbles, scrubbing his hands across his face and collapsing back in his desk chair. “A few months ago, I promised my friend that I’d set him up on a blind date if he ever wanted one. It was my way of repaying him for getting me the job here. Anyway, he never cashed in on it, so I assumed he forgot about it. But now…”

“Now he’s finally cashed in on it.”

Steve sighs, dropping his chin to his chest. “Yeah, pretty much. And everyone I had in mind for him is spoken for now. So I have about an hour and a half to convince someone to go on this goddamn blind date.”

Bucky hums in sympathy, and Steve curses under his breath again. Laughing, Bucky sits down in the seat across from him. “This friend, who is he?”

“His name is Sam Wilson, he’s my roommate.”

“Can I see a photo?”

Steve nods, reaching in his pocket to get his phone. If Bucky has any idea of someone who might be interested, Steve will jump at the chance. He pulls up his best picture of Sam, and hands his phone over to Bucky, who examines it in silence for such a long time that Steve feels the need to fill the space.

“He’s, uh, military,” Steve explains, and Bucky nods thoughtfully. “Really funny, he’s got a quick wit. He’s super smart, and loyal, and he’s a pretty good cook. Athletic, keeps himself in shape. He likes action movies—”

“I’ll go out with him,” Bucky interrupts, handing the phone back.

Steve blinks, suddenly speechless. He hadn’t known Bucky was even into guys, much less that he was single. Hell, if he’d known, he might’ve made a move of his own. Bucky Barnes was the heartthrob of the office building—girls wanted to fuck him and boys wanted to be him. Or, in Steve’s case, a healthy dose of both. With a slight preference for the first option, because god only knows what it’d be like to watch Bucky Barnes fuck you. Anyway.

For a moment, Steve is at war with himself. On the one hand, he was head over heels in love with this man. How could he set his crush up on a date with his best friend? It’d be torture, especially if the relationship worked out. God, Steve would have to go to the wedding. He’d probably have to be Sam’s best man. He might even be the godfather to any of their future children. Steve’s not sure he can mentally handle the guilt of wanting to bang his best friend’s husband for the rest of his life.

But on the other hand, this is someone willing to go out on this blind date. Letting Bucky go out with Sam will save Steve’s ass, which is more important than anything else right now. He’d be stupid to turn Bucky’s offer down.

“You will?” Steve asks, and Bucky nods.

“Yeah, why not? He’s pretty cute. And I love a man with a good sense of humor.” Bucky flashes that beautiful, pearly white smile and Steve nearly tells him no, that won’t be necessary. He doesn’t want Sam to see Bucky’s perfect _everything_ and fall in love just like Steve has.

But he doesn’t say no. “You’re a lifesaver,” he says instead, and it’s almost worth it when he sees that Bucky smiles even wider. “Seriously, I really owe you one.”

“Don’t offer to set me up on a blind date, though, because I can tell that that’s not something that’s going to end well for you.”

“Yeah, probably not.” Steve smiles, his heart quivering in his chest. This is one of the hardest things he’s ever had to do, hands down. “I’ll let Sam know. Um, just meet him at 7 o’clock tonight. I’ll text you where and what to wear. He’ll be looking for a specific shirt color. And I’ll send you a picture of him so you know what he looks like.” Steve hesitates for a moment—of all the times he’d planned on asking for Bucky’s number, it was never under these circumstances. He doesn’t know how to feel about that. “Can I get your number?”

Bucky reaches into his coat pocket, pulling out a business card and handing it over. “My cell is on there, right below the office number. The first three digits should be 736.”

Steve circles the cell number on the card and then tucks it into his wallet. “Cool. I’ll, uh, let you know the details later,” Steve murmurs, and Bucky smiles, standing up and straightening out his jacket.

“Pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Rogers,” Bucky says, holding out his hand. Steve rolls his eyes but stands, accepting the offered handshake. “I’ll let you know the circumstances of my compensation later on. It’ll depend on how well the date goes.”

Steve chuckles quietly. “I’m guessing that the worse the date is, the more expensive the repayment is?”

“On the nose!” Bucky teases, and starts backing out of the room. Steve forces a small smile. “Don’t forget to complete those reports before you clock out, Mr. Rogers.”

“Yes, sir,” Steve mumbles, pulling out the reports as soon as Bucky is out of sight. “I’ll get those done as soon as possible.”

***

“What did you say he looks like?” Sam asks, standing in front his mirror and straightening his tie. Steve had told him countless times that they were meeting up at a gay bar so there was no need to get so dressed up, but Sam insisted. Steve has long since learned not to argue anymore.

“Tall, dark, and handsome,” Steve mumbles, twirling a loose string on Sam’s duvet around his finger until it turns purple. “Long hair, blue eyes. He’ll be wearing an AC/DC t-shirt.”

Sam snorts, “Of course you’d pick one of the most popular t-shirts in the world.”

“You’re not going to see many people wearing t-shirts in the snow, Sam,” Steve argues. “He’ll also be wearing jeans with holes in the knees.”

Sam nods, and then turns around. “How do I look? Is the tie crooked?” Steve examines it and decides that yes, it is—so he spends the next few minutes trying to straighten it up. “Tell me his name again.”

“Uh, James,” Steve tells him. It’s not a lie, James really _is_ Bucky’s first name. Steve is just holding out hope that Bucky will call himself James tonight, so Sam won’t find out that he’s the same Bucky that Steve has spent way too much time pining over. He’d never let Steve live it down. “James Barnes.”

“Barnes. Interesting, that name sounds familiar.”

“Your tie is done.”

“Cool, thanks.” Sam smiles, turns back to his reflection to examine himself one more time. They’re expecting to hear Bucky outside any minute now, and both of their stomachs are turning themselves inside out—and not for the same reason. Sam is nervous, but Steve is just anxious. “So, how do you know this guy again?”

Steve stutters for a moment. Does he admit that Bucky is a coworker and risk Sam figuring it out, or does he lie and risk Sam figuring it out? It’s kind of a damn-damn situation. “Um, I work with him.”

Sam pauses, meeting Steve’s eyes through the mirror. “So you’re telling me he’s a nerd like you,” he clarifies, and Steve shrugs. “Great. That means I have to pretend to be smart to impress him.”

“Nah, I don’t think he’s that type of guy. He’ll like you for you.”

“Really?” Sam asks, and he sounds so much more vulnerable than Steve’s ever heard. “Okay. Tell me about him.”

“I don’t really know what to say,” Steve lies, avoiding eye contact like the Plague. He’s afraid of Sam seeing the truth there. He’s afraid that Sam will see that Steve knows _exactly_ what to say, that Steve could wax poetic about Bucky and how everything about him is absolutely perfect.

“Try. I want to know what I’m getting into.”

Steve sighs, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “Uh, okay. Um… Okay, he’s really funny. He has a super dry sense of humor, and he says things that surprise me. Like you don’t expect it, and you don’t expect it to be funny, and you’re cracking up before you even realize you are. And he always gets this big smile when he makes people laugh, like he’s proud of himself. And whenever he’s walking around the office, he’s always whistling or singing something. It could be any song or tune, some of the most random shit. I think he even makes some of it up. Oh, and he’s super polite. He always says please and thank you and excuse me, and sir or ma’am. Which is really funny, when I think about it, because he’s also the first person to tease others. He’ll make fun of you for the smallest things, and when he’s got you good and riled up, he’ll just smile and say ‘don’t worry, I’m just messing with you’. And if you get even more mad, he’ll tell you that you’re cute when you’re angry. It’s kind of impossible to be mad with him when he says that. It’s kind of hard to be mad with him at all, really, because he’s kind and thoughtful and doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. Just spending time with him can put anyone in a better mood.”

He looks up, finding that Sam is staring at him. Steve instantly blushes, rubbing the back of his neck again. “Wow,” Sam says, and Steve sucks his head. “Sounds like a pretty great guy. Are you sure you shouldn’t be going on this date instead of me?”

“What?” Steve asks, looking up at Sam. “No, no. What makes you say that? I couldn’t… I don’t—”

“Right, right, how could I forget? Your dick only gets hard for that Bucky guy.” Sam turns back to the mirror, and Steve lets out a minuscule sigh of relief. Sam still hasn’t realized that Bucky and James are the same person. “What did you tell James about me?”

Steve blushes again as he thinks of what he’d said about Sam versus what he’d said about Bucky. Smart, loyal, athletic, funny, with a knack for cooking. He’d summarized Sam and then turned around and wrote an ode to Bucky Barnes. Some best friend he is.

“All the bad things,” he snipes, mostly to avoid the question. “How bad you smell, how you never do the housework, your collection of crusty socks…”

“Fuck you,” Sam laughs, turning around to sock Steve in the arm. “You better have told him all good things.”

“Of course I did.”

“Good,” Sam nods. He turns around once more, and pats Steve on the back. “Time to get going then. He’s waiting on me. I’ll see you later tonight, though, okay?”

Steve smirks. “I better. I didn’t raise you to put out on the first date,” he teases. _God, please don’t put out on this date._

“Please, Rogers,” Sam gasps, clutching his chest like he’s offended. “Who do you think I am? I would never put out on the first date. There has to be a minimum of three dates.”

“Unless he’s rich,” Steve jokes, and Sam hums in agreement. “Go on, don’t be late. Have fun.”

Sam doesn’t say anything else before he leaves, and Steve doesn’t mind. He collapses down on the bed, throwing his arm over his eyes and burying his nose in the crook of his elbow. He feels guilty for praying to God that Sam and Bucky don’t have fun, but he can’t help it. It isn’t fair that Sam got to date Steve’s crush before Steve ever got the chance. But hey, it’s not Sam’s fault. Steve only has himself to blame for this.

***

Sam was supposed to be home by midnight, but it’s half past 2am and Sam still hasn’t barged into Steve’s room to complain or gush about his date with Bu–James. He can’t decide if that’s a good sign or a bad sign. He really, really wants Sam to be happy. He’d just rather Sam find that happiness with literally anyone else.

Oh, well. Steve made his bed and now he has to lie in it.

 **Steve** (2:36am): _Where are you?_

As soon as he presses send, he hears a collection of weird noises coming from the kitchen. Either they have a mouse in the cabinets again, or someone is in there—and Steve places his bets on the latter.

Tossing his phone aside, Steve gets out of bed, cracking his door open to see if he can spot Sam in the kitchen across the room. But the apartment is pitch black, and Steve can’t investigate the noises without turning on the lights and potentially revealing himself to an intruder.

He decides it’s a necessary evil, and slinks out of his room, pressing himself against the wall. On his way to the light switch, he feels around for a weapon, but comes up empty. He decides that if it comes down to fist-fighting, that’s what has to be. And he flips on the light.

Sitting next to the fridge, half-naked and drinking a glass of water, is Bucky. He looks shocked to see Steve—also half-naked, unfortunately—and blushes. Steve doesn’t think he’s ever seen Bucky blush before.

“Oh,” Steve says, startled. “I didn’t know you and Sam were back.” _I also didn’t realize that Sam would like you enough to have you over on the first date,_ Steve thinks but doesn’t say. It’s not his place to be jealous. If Sam likes Bucky this much, Steve has no right to butt into it.

“We just got back. It was kind of a late night. I wasn’t actually going to spend the night, but it’s snowing, and I don’t have a coat.”

“Do you melt when the snow hits you?” Steve asks, and Bucky’s eyebrow arches.

“No. But I _do_ turn into a merman when it melts.”

Steve laughs, and Bucky gets that stupid fucking proud smile, and god, Steve loves him. “How was the date? Did it go well?” He asks, even though he doesn’t really want to know. He needs to be supportive of his friends, even if it’s painful.

“Yeah, it did. The funniest thing happened, though. Sam knew my name before I even introduced myself. He called me James.” Steve blushes, ducking his head in the hopes that Bucky won’t notice it. “I’m not opposed to being called James or anything, but the only person who ever calls me that is my mother, and I’m not too keen on the idea of associating my mother with the person I’m dating. I’m sure you understand.”

Steve coughs awkwardly. “Uh, yeah.”

“So I told him to call me Bucky, and went through the explanation that my name is James Buchanan Barnes and Bucky is from Buchanan. But while I was explaining this, Sam had this really weird look on his face. I asked him what was wrong, and you’ll never guess what he said. It was the oddest thing.”

“I’m sorry,” Steve mumbles, miserably. Of course he had to go and embarrass himself in front of his relatively new coworker. Of course he had to go and make Bucky uncomfortable. Being the women’s’ heartthrob is one thing, but who would want to know they’ve caught the eye of the scrawny guy who looks as if his balls haven’t even dropped? “I didn’t mean to fuck up with you and Sam this badly. I swear it won’t get in the way of anything, you and Sam can be together and I won’t be a problem. I swear. I’ll move on, it’ll go away eventually.”

“Steve, what are you on about?”

Steve looks up, and finds Bucky standing much closer to him than he had been before. There’s a soft look in his eyes, and Steve can’t help but notice how good his cologne smells. Another thing to add to the list of things he loves about Bucky Barnes—smells like heaven.

“Didn’t Sam tell you…?”

“Tell me that you have a crush on me? Yeah, he told me,” Bucky nods, and Steve’s throat closes in on itself. “But only because I told him about my crush on you first.”

“Wait, what?”

Bucky nods, “Yeah. He told me that you’d mentioned me before, and he didn’t connect the dots that James and Bucky was the same person. And he had such a weird look on his face that I assumed he knew that I had feelings for you. That he was assuming that you’d pawned me off on him so I’d leave you alone. So I quickly explained that my feelings for you meant nothing, and he bursted out laughing. Asked me if I really had no idea that you were head over heels in love with me.”

Steve gapes, his heart pounding in his ears. Bucky had feelings for him?

“You have feelings for me?”

“Yeah,” Bucky nods, then chews on his lip. A nervous habit, probably. A cute one. “I hope that doesn’t make things weird between us.”

Steve shakes his head. “No, no! Of course not! I-I mean, why would it?”

“It’s not like I just went on a date with your best friend or anything.” Steve winces, which makes Bucky laugh. “I’m just kidding. Sam was really cool about it. We spent most of the night just hanging out. He said that he and I needed to get to know each other before he gave me his blessing to start a relationship with you. Then he drove me back here and told me that he’d have you talk to me in the morning, but then the snow started, and then you woke up, and now here we are.”

“Yeah,” Steve nods, his heart still racing. “Here we are. Wow. I can’t believe this is real, that this is actually happening.”

“It would’ve happened eventually,” Bucky shrugs, and it’s Steve’s turn to raise his eyebrows. “There’s no way I could’ve kept working with you and not made a move eventually. You’re too cute for me to resist. Especially when you’re—”

“Angry,” Steve fills in, and Bucky grins. “So you keep telling me.”

“I’d like to tell you a few more times. On a date, maybe? To a different bar, though. I don’t want the staff of the bar Sam and I were at to think that I’m cheating or something.”

Steve laughs, and Bucky smiles, almost as if the two events have to happen at the same time. Like maybe Bucky only cares about making Steve laugh. “Sure. But not now, because it’s 3am and I get grouchy if I don’t get enough sleep.”

“I’m sure you’re adorable when you’re grouchy.”

“Oh, I am,” Steve nods, and Bucky laughs. “Anyway, um, I’ll see you in the morning. You’re more than welcome to take the guest room for the night.”

“Alright, thanks. Goodnight, Steve.”

“Goodnight, Bucky.”

Steve makes his way to his bedroom again, so far up on cloud nine that he almost doesn’t hear Bucky say his name again. But he does hear it, and turns around right within the threshold of his doorway.

“What’s up?”

Bucky crosses the room, planting himself right in front of Steve. “How about a goodnight kiss?”

“A kiss?” Steve asks, and Bucky—looking much too smug for Steve’s liking—nods. “Ask me again after the first date.”

To his credit, Bucky doesn’t look surprised, nor disappointed. Instead, he just smiles, like he’s never heard anything more pleasing. “I intend to. I’ll ask after the second, third, and fourth as well.”

“And after the fifth? The sixth?”

“After that, I’ll just go for it.”

“Presumptuous.”

“Maybe,” Bucky nods, backing off and heading for the guest room. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow night at 8, okay? Dress nicely, we’re going to dinner. And I’m paying.” And then the door is closed, and Steve smiles to himself.

He’ll need to invest in some nice chapstick.

He goes back into his own room, and climbs into bed. He picks up his phone from where he’d discarded it, and before he gets the chance to plug it in, he sees that Sam had responded to his text. 

 **Sam** (3:00am): _You’re welcome._

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr @medicineontour


End file.
